GRAND FORKS - About 10 minutes after the University of North Dakota beat Alaska Anchorage 3-1 on Saturday night to finish off a series sweep, the math wizards spoke: The Sioux officially clinched home ice for the first round of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs.
Their sights will be set much higher, though.
Thanks to goals by Brett Hextall, Evan Trupp and Jason Gregoire - and Minnesota's 7-3 win over Denver - the Sioux also regained first place in the league standings with three weeks to go.
UND (21-8-2, 16-6 WCHA) has 32 points, one ahead of the Pioneers and two ahead of Minnesota-Duluth and Nebraska-Omaha, which are tied for third.
"Whenever you can be in control, that's what you want," said Hextall, who had a two-point night. "It's going to be a challenge for us now for the next couple weeks to make sure we show up both nights on a weekend. Two points isn't good enough for a weekend. We're going to need four from here on out and that's what we expect from ourselves.
ADVERTISEMENT
"We were not real happy when we fell out of first place there and we wanted to get back there tonight and keep ourselves there the rest of the year."
UND closes the regular season at St. Cloud State, home against Bemidji State and at Michigan Tech. After that, Ralph Engelstad Arena will host a first-round playoff series for the ninth consecutive year - the longest current run in the WCHA.
Sioux coach Dave Hakstol would like to see his team build off of a strong weekend in which they outscored the Seawolves 9-2 and outshot them 78-40.
"It was a complete weekend," said Hakstol, whose team is chasing their second MacNaughton Cup in three years. "That's what you have to do at this time of year. It's a tough league throughout the year. It's an extremely tough league at this time of year. This was a real hard-fought game tonight. It was 120 minutes for our hockey team this weekend."
The second largest crowd in Ralph Engelstad Arena history - 12,090 - and the largest since opening night watched UND grind out the series finale against a gritty Seawolves squad. Anchorage was much tighter defensively than it was in allowing six goals Friday night.
"They played a different game than Friday night," said Jason Gregoire, who has eight goals and four assists in eight games since returning from a concussion. "They packed it in, took away rebounds and sticks. They played the game they needed to play. Kudos to our guys. They came out hard, finishing checks and finishing rebounds."
FIRST PERIOD: 1, UND, Hextall (Knight, Gregoire) 19:59 (pp).
SECOND PERIOD: 2, UND, Trupp (Frattin) :52.
ADVERTISEMENT
THIRD PERIOD: 3, UND, Gregoire (Hextall, Knight) 5:45. 4, UAA, Bailey 16:59.
SAVES: UAA, Gunderson 11-15-14-40. UND, Dell 4-5-8-17.
Schlossman writes for the Grand Forks Herald
